The state Department of Land and Natural Resources wants to revise rules for anglers to stop the depletion of small fish and vertebrate in Hawaiian waters. If the rules are changed, fish stocks can recover and be preserved for future
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources wants to revise rules for anglers to stop the depletion of small fish and vertebrate in Hawaiian waters.
If the rules are changed, fish stocks can recover and be preserved for future generations of Hawai’i residents, the agency said.
There is opposition to the rules proposal, which will be discussed at a public meeting that DLNR officials have scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at Wilcox Elementary School in Lihu’e. Eight similar meetings will be held on O’ahu, Big Island and Maui by Aug. 28.
Jean Nakamura, owner of Lihu’e Fishing Supply, which has been in business for 51 years, said she doesn’t think the agency should change rules until existing ones can be enforced.
“That has been the biggest problem on this island,” Nakamura said. “We have all these laws, but there is no enforcement.”
She said there doesn’t seem to be enough law enforcement officers to carry out the state laws.
State biologists are developing a conservation plan to deal with overfishing, according to Deborah Ward, a spokeswoman for DLNR.
The decline in the fish population probably began in the early 1900s and has accelerated because of overfishing and the impacts from development, said Randy Honebrink, education coordinator with the DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources.
The rules need to be changed “because many of the existing regulations make no sense biologically,” said Kimberly Lowe, coordinator with the agency’s Main Hawaiian Islands Marine Resources Investigation, charged with reviewing existing fisheries management practices.
Lowe said most of the changes relate to protecting undersize fish.
“In the case of kumu, one of Hawai’i’s most popular reef fish for eating, the minimum size is now seven inches. But kumu doesn’t begin to reproduce until they are about 10 to 11 inches,” Lowe said.
For some currently regulated species, changes in the minimum size of fish will be minor, she said.
But significant changes are planned for striped mullet, kala, ‘opelu kala, moi, ‘o’io and papio, Lowe said.
Other changes include limiting ‘oama fishing to pole and line only, prohibiting nighttime spearing of uhu, extending closed season for mullet by one month and redefining minimum size measures for Kona crab.
To help with enforcement of new rules, the scientific names of the species will be included in them, Lowe said.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
